Students in some professional master’s and PhD programmes in clinical medicine in China could graduate by presenting a practical achievement rather than a thesis, under draft rules released on 22 October by government-appointed education advisers. The programmes typically last three years and are aimed at medical graduates and practising physicians.
Examples of eligible work include an analysis of a special clinical case or an investigation into a problem faced by medical institutions. Professional degrees are designed to prepare students to address challenges in their field, unlike academic degrees, which focus more on research skills.
The proposal extends a pathway available to engineering postgraduates since 2024. China’s Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council says similar graduation options are expected in translation, agriculture, accounting and the arts.
Clinical medicine has already had a pilot case. Tie Dazhao graduated in June with what his supervisor described as the first practical PhD in the field, after being selected for the pilot in 2023. Tie developed software using artificial intelligence to help physicians classify a rare spinal condition and identify treatment strategies, according to Zhou Feifei, a spinal surgeon at Peking University Third Hospital.
The draft rules encourage universities to establish their own requirements for training and assessing students. But setting reliable standards will be difficult, says Liping Duan, a gastroenterologist at the same hospital and a member of the national advisory committee that developed the clinical medicine policy. Assessment criteria may need to differ between specialties, she says, and quality control will be essential so the option is not mistaken for an easier route to graduation.
Futao Huang, a higher-education policy researcher at Hiroshima University, says professional degrees should assess students in ways that reflect their intended careers. He identifies the development of credible, transparent and profession-specific standards for practical work as a key challenge.
Sources: Nature.